Donors who give through endowments ensure that today’s lifesaving programs
continue to support our human-animal community in the future.
To include HSSV in your legacy, contact Megan Guzman at 669-263-6210 or megan.guzman@hssv.org
Each donor who establishes an endowment fund provides HSSV with financial support in perpetuity — and creates an inspiring legacy. By securing our future with endowments, donors safeguard HSSV’s successful programs while enabling us to aspire towards more ambitious goals.
What will your legacy be? If you’d like it to include HSSV, read our simple Endowments Guide.
Behind every endowment, there’s a person.
We hope you are inspired by these donors below, who have made this critical step in ensuring HSSV’s future with their own named funds.
Abby and Calvin’s Endowed Fund
Shelter dog training scholarships, and post-adoption dog training
Ashley Rose Phelps Memorial Endowment
Direct Program Support for Finding Homes for Animals
The Athena Wisdom Endowment
Area of Greatest Need
At-Risk Kitty Fund
Treatable/Managable Felines, Veterinary Staff Education for TM Felines
The Beghtel Endowment
Prevent Unwanted Animal Births, Find Homes for More Animals
The Bexy Shy Friends Endowment
Cat and Kitten Care
Bridget Keenan and Her Motley Crew Endowment
Regional Rescue and Foster Care
Buff the Dog’s Endowed Fund to Change the Game
Changing the Game
Carol Novello Fund
Area of Greatest Need
Charley and Abby’s Family Endowment Fund
Access to Care, Pet Pantry, and Emergency Boarding
The Chris Page and Elisa Camahort Page Endowed Fund
Access to Care, Bring People and Animals Together
DePip Pride and Pack Endowment
Mobile Spay and Neuter Services, Access to Care, Senior Pet Care
Friends of HSSV Endowment
Regional Rescue, Foster Care, and Access to Care
Gomer’s Endowment
Foster Care, Medical Care
The Jaspurr Family Endowed Fund
Area of Greatest Need
The Kathleen and Lloyd Paster in Honor of Arthur and Norma Ohringer Endowed Fund
Keeping Families Together and Changing the Game
Margaret and Curt Weil Furry Friends Fund
Cat Care, Spay and Neuter, Regional Rescue
Marianne and Misty’s Second Chance Endowment
Access to Care, Area of Greatest Need
The MB and Sammy Endowment
Humane Education and Shelter Medicine
The Overby-Salice Endowed Fund
Access to Care, Area of Greatest Need
The Patty, Puff, and Portia Winter Endowed Fund
Education and certification of veterinary and behavior team members, Area of Greatest Need
Peanuts and Friends Endowment
Foster Care and Medical Programs
The Posey Endowment
Access to Care for Homeless Animals
Monte S. Bernstein Fund in Honor of All of His Dogs and Cats
Area of Greatest Need
The Richard and Sally Broberg Endowed Fund
Area of Greatest Need
Severson Ahart Chief of Shelter Medicine Fund
Chief of Shelter Medicine Salary
Stetson’s Endowment
Access to Care and Area of Greatest Need
Steve Hughes and His Little Cat Posse Endowment
Regional Rescue, Special Medical Care for Cats
Susan Jean Neely Memorial Endowment
Animals Needing Special Care, Disaster Relief, Community Services, Mutual Rescue™
The TJ ViP CLuB Endowment
Regional Rescue and Medical Care
Behind every person, there’s a story…
For Clint and Conni, farm life and city life had one thing in common growing up – the animal companions that kept them company. Now, they have made the transformational decision to include HSSV in their legacy, to help secure a better future for the animals in our community.
As part of their $1 million gift, Clint and Conni established two endowment funds. One endowment is for HSSV’s Chief of Shelter Medicine position, to secure high level of expertise that our medical leadership requires to continue our lifesaving mission. The second endowment is for our area of greatest need.
It’s “exciting to know that you’re making this kind of a difference in the world,” Connie says.
Listen to Clint and Conni describe their decision to “help people by helping animals” for years to come, in their own words.
... And we love telling your stories
Steve and Terri Belsley first came across HSSV while scouring shelter websites for their beloved Shiba Inu, Bella, after she slipped her collar. Though they did not find Bella at HSSV, they did find a staff that provided wholehearted support during a difficult time.
Since then, Steve and Terri have welcomed a variety of animal companions into their family, who have helped them through their own challenges over the years: Sammy, Sarge, Squeaky, and Soji.
Fourteen years after the tragic day that brough the Belsleys to HSSV, our relationship has transformed into one of mutual support: Terri and Steve have generously created an endowment program that names HSSV as a beneficiary of 25% of their estate.
“We believe so strongly in the HSSV mission,” says Terri. “The legacy program ensures HSSV continues to grow, evolve and expand. HSSV’s future is so bright and we are so grateful to be a part of it.”
Sonja and David have been supporters of HSSV since 2019. After coming for a tour at HSSV, Sonja and David talked about their challenge with problem kitty named Bexy, who was having trouble getting along with her three kitty siblings. Our Behavior Team provided suggestions to help Bexy, but nothing seemed to fix the situation. Sonja and David realized they needed to make the very difficult decision to re-home Bexy, for both her sake and for thesafety of their other cats.
They surrendered Bexy to HSSV as a “transitional cat.” Our Behavior Team worked with Bexy to make her comfortable and safe, and then was able to make her available for adoption. She was adopted in two days, and now lives in a place where she is the only cat and has the run of the house and yard! Sonja and David decided to honor Bexy by starting a new endowment fund that will not only support kittens and cats on their road to adoption, but also support HSSV in areas where we most need it.
Long time HSSV Supporters Anna Wichansky and Nick Filipp have supported HSSV in multiple ways: Anna’s phenomenal volunteering in the Medical Center, Foster Animal Vaccination Station program and so much more. They are also known for honoring a loved one with a Commemorative Brick, attending events like The Fur Ball and Walk and Wag, and even donating their car. And they have provided financial support to HSSV for special funding challenges like Extended Medical and Post Adoption Behavioral Scholarships.
Anna and Nick have now planted roots into HSSV by establishing “Charley and Abby’s Family Endowment Fund” to support HSSV’s Access to Care for low income and the unhoused, and Community Services Programs, specifically Pet Pantry and Emergency Boarding. This endowment fund will truly make an impact on HSSV’s work and provide care for hundreds of animals… the Charleys and Abbys in the future, year after year in perpetuity.
Jim and Judy Duport have been part of HSSV’s journey for over 30 years, first as annual donors and eventually as monthly Faithful Friend contributors. Over the years, Jim and Judy’s relationship with HSSV has grown into one of strong support and trust – which is why HSSV’s Pet Guardianship program became so important to them. Knowing that if anything should happen to them, their beloved dachshunds, Diamond and Dolly, would be cared for by HSSV and re-homed together gave them peace of mind.
Jim and Judy knew that they wanted to fund an endowment with the majority of their future bequest to HSSV – the problem was, they didn’t know what programs they wanted to ultimately fund.
Judy’s “ah hah!” moment came when she considered the time in Diamond’s life when she required extensive and expensive critical medical care. It took 20 days in intensive care and surgery at UC Davis for Diamond to recover. That’s when it clicked – while she and Jim were fortunate enough to care for Diamond (jokingly rechristened “Platinum”), many people in the same position would not be able to afford the same level of care. And so, Judy decided that the Duports’ future endowment would help cover veterinary care for pet owners who might face the possibility of euthanizing their beloved pets due to medical costs.
From her experience, Judy offers the following advice:
“If you are in a position to start an endowment and are holding off because, like me, you can’t figure out what is important for you personally, my advice is to take your time, focus on your own animals — past and present — and find that connection that translates your love into a gift to others, going forward.”
Steve Hughes never had pets until his girlfriend moved in with her cat. The cat took to Steve so much his girlfriend was a bit miffed! When the cat eventually passed away, Steve began his new life as a father to rescue kittens, starting with Ariel and Bear Bear (both HSSV alumni), followed by Oliver.
In early 2017, Steve found himself without cats, but soon adopted three community kittens, Jasmine, Brutus, and Mathilda, who were brought to HSSV’s Trap-Neuter-Return program. Poppy and Kiara, HSSV rescues as well, soon followed. He found Esmeralda in his hedge in 2020, and with HSSV’s help was able to trap her, have her go through the TNR process, and ultimately adopt her.
Steve’s support of HSSV began as an annual contribution. In 2019, his contributions blossomed further when he used some of his retirement funds to become one of the first donors to set up an endowment fund. One of our cat adoption condos is named after Steve’s HSSV alumni, and he also funded an upgrade to the Marilyn and Fred Anderson Community Cat Garden.
During an HSSV shelter tour, Steve watched the medical staff focus on a small community kitten with a blood sugar problem, saving the life of “just a little kitty brought in from the street.” It made a huge impact on him, and he cites the medical program as an important reason in directing his legacy funding. “I have had a very symbiotic relationship with HSSV,” he said. “They have facilitated my ability to have my kitties because they are supportive of pet owners long after adoption, and the staff are always available for help or advice.”
“With regards to the endowment program, HSSV lets me direct my funds to where I want them to go!” he reported. In addition to the medical program, Steve lauds our Regional Rescue and community cat programs as special and is in the process of enrolling his “six little charmers” in HSSV’s Pet Guardianship program.
Peter Ross has always been an enthusiastic volunteer, beginning when he was a Peace Corps Volunteer in India in the early 1960s. Later his work extended into teaching math at Santa Clara University as a Senior Lecturer and working with the Sierra Club on summer service trips in the US, Canada, and Russia. Eventually, his altruism led him to HSSV, where he completed every dog socialization class to become a volunteer.
In addition to volunteering his time, Peter has named HSSV a beneficiary of 25% of his Trust. Peter is drawn to various aspects of HSSV’s work, such as the Garden Cat program and the Cecilia Claudio Spay and Neuter Programs – but most importantly, Peter is a champion of the support HSSV provides to dog socialization and adoptions.
In many ways, Beverly Swanson is the heart of HSSV. She is a volunteer extraordinaire, long-time donor, and parent of two HSSV cat alumni, Macka and Fiona. Her dedication to animals stretches back to her childhood and knows no bounds. At the height of the pandemic, Beverly showed up when other volunteers couldn’t, occasionally working full days socializing and matchmaking cats. To her, the connection with the cats is more important even than her donations, and as a socializer she has identified matches for herself and others.
Her life is intertwined with our lifesaving mission, so it was only natural that she created an endowment fund when HSSV initiated the legacy program.
In honor of a very special cat, Mz Purr, Beverly created the “At-Risk Kitty Fund.” The initial objective of this endowment was to help cats with diabetes and epilepsy, whose medical conditions often lead to euthanasia at shelters without the resources to treat them, even though these cats could flourish with proper treatment in a loving home environment.
Because Beverly wanted to see the difference that her endowment made in her lifetime, she decided to contribute annually. This way, she is also able to work with the cats that her endowment is helping. As at-risk cats come in, Beverly is able to socialize them and see them off to their adoptions.
“For me, it’s always been a combination of donating on a long-term basis, adopting animals, and volunteering,” Beverly says. “Deciding to build our own endowment was a culmination of all those experiences.”
Nanci Viera’s support for HSSV stretches way back to the 80s when the shelter was located in Santa Clara. “It seemed that I was always finding lost and stray dogs in my travels and knew HSSV was the best place to take them,” she said.
Nanci hosted a yearly holiday boutique where 10% of the proceeds went to HSSV. A pivotal moment came in 1992, when she saw a cat out in the rain in an industrial area. “I went home, got food, and came back to feed it. That was the beginning of my community cat colony, which originally had about 60 cats. Through my Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) efforts, my colony is now down to about 12 cats which is a blessing!”
She currently has three rescue community cats and has also rescued many animals over the years. One special rescue was a deaf, blind, and toothless dog, Rexx. The vet predicted he would probably live only a few months. Eleven years later, when Rexx died, he had earned the name “Rexx the Wonder Dog.”
“I have always wanted to do great things, but since I can’t sing, act, dance or be a lawyer, I have had to make small contributions in a big and consistent way,” said Nanci. “However, upon my death and the sale of my home, I will be able to do some great things!”
Nanci’s contribution and endowment to HSSV will help animals for years to come. A quarter of the proceeds are dedicated to being immediately used for Cecilia Claudio Spay and Neuter Programs, and the endowment fund will last a long time to help the wonderful animals being served at HSSV.
Several years ago, when Curt and Margaret Weil took their first tour of the about-to-be-opened HSSV Animal Community Center in Milpitas, now the Detkin/Oates Center, they were extremely impressed by how everything was well-thought out. They also loved the way former HSSV President Carol Novello drove the organization to become a gold standard shelter. “From the beginning, we saw HSSV as a shining example of a well-run organization,” said Curt.
A self-described “airplane geek”, Curt travels frequently across the country to museums devoted to his passion. Both Curt and Margaret being cat lovers, have developed a circle of “cat friends” who help each other out and share responsibilities with caring for pets when someone is away. All of Curt and Margaret’s cats have been adopted from HSSV, and they’ve typically had four cats at any given time. They currently have two cats named Fred and Earl.
Curt and Margaret always encouraged their friends to adopt from HSSV. In fact, they recommended HSSV to a couple in their eighties who were denied adoption by other organizations because of their age. The couple went on to adopt our alumnus Rodney, a handsome golden retriever!
Both Curt and Margaret, now in their seventies, had careers as financial professionals. So, when doing their estate planning, it was very important to them to ensure they were responsible stewards of what they have managed to build over the years. Since they were already regular donors to HSSV and had been steadily increasing their contributions, the legacy program was a natural next step.
They named HSSV as a beneficiary of 10% of their estate as they were confident in HSSV’s mission to ensure funds are used wisely. “Anyone who cares about animals as their companions would have to look a long time before they can find an organization more worthy than HSSV,” said Curt and Margaret.
“As she battled cancer, our sister, Sue, was an inspiration. In her honor, we’ve created an endowment with HSSV to help ill, neglected, or abandoned animals in the fight of their lives. Our furry friends should not have to endure these challenges alone.”
– Janice Purcell